Tempe

Inner-west suburb on the northern bank of Cooks River which grew from the workers camp established to build the Cooks River dam in 1839. By the 1850s it was also home to limeburners, woodsmen and fishermen.

Footer

Footer Secondary

Suburb

Marrickville Council

Marrickville local government area

Area in Sydney's inner west, traditional lands of the Cadigal people, governed by Marrickville Council. It was enlarged by the amalgamation of St Peters and Petersham municipalities in 1949 and had Newtown and Camperdown added to it in 1968.

Bayview House Private Mental Hospital, King Street, Tempe 1939

Germans

German migration has played a part in every decade of Sydney's growth and contributed widely to the rural, industrial and cultural development of the city.

Indonesians

Indonesians arrived in Sydney in great numbers after the dismantling of the White Australia policy in the 1970s, and with strong community organisations have added richly to Sydney's cultural and culinary life.

Marrickville

Once the site of a vast swampland, Marrickville became a significant industrial area in the nineteenth century. Today, the industry has largely gone but its multicultural legacy still flourishes in this inner west suburb.

Sydenham

Part of the rich lands of the Cadigal people, Sydenham was late to develop because of the Gumbramorra Swamp which covered most of the western part. It grew into a thriving industrial and workers' suburb with a few large villas, but was gutted in the late twentieth century by the effects of aircraft noise from Sydney Airport. The demolition of 152 houses created Sydenham Green, a large park.

The road south

Built as an access road to the farmland south of Sydney town, the road south gradually pushed far beyond Cooks River to the Georges River ferry.

Greeks

Sydney's Hellenic community is one of the city's largest and most influential, with a long and complex history. Greek-speaking people came from many parts of the Mediterranean, as well as Hellas itself, and have maintained their diverse cultural traditions at the same time as becoming part of Sydney's institutions and cultural and business life.

Irish in Sydney from First Fleet to Federation

A large part of Sydney's European community from its earliest days, the Irish helped shape the colony and its cultural and religious institutions. While many Irish immigrants, both convict and free, prospered and flourished in Sydney throughout the nineteenth century, they rarely forgot their homeland and its struggles, and remained a community which never thought of England as 'home'.

Canterbury Sugarworks

As the earliest surviving element of the Australian sugar industry, the Sugarworks has endured a variety of industrial uses to become an intrinsic part of Canterbury's heritage.

From Sheas Creek to Alexandra Canal

Once a stream draining much of southern Sydney, the conversion of the Sheas Creek to an industrial canal resulted in a polluted and ugly corridor that has defied attempts at remediation

From a fine stream to an industrial watercourse

As Sydney expanded in the nineteenth century the picturesque waterways and valleys of the Cooks River were to host a network of waterworks and rail and road infrastructure that were to degrade the landscape forever.

Industry in the Cooks River valley

As industry took hold in Cooks River valley, pollution and drainage became entrenched problems accompanied by flooding and public health concerns.

Damming the Cooks River

Once considered 'the greatest boon ever conferred upon the town', the Cooks River dam became an endless source of environmental blight and misery to Sydneysiders and by the turn of the century was demolished

Servicing Sydney's thirst

Increasing population and industry saw the Cooks River transformed from a pristine natural watercourse into a highly modified and polluted river

First people of the Cooks River

From beyond the time when the river flowed as Europeans came to know it, and long after its banks were dotted with farms, Aboriginal people have had a strong connection to the Cooks River.

Electrification of the Sydney Suburban Train Network

By the turn of the twentieth century, Sydney’s train network was under increasing pressure from an expanding suburbia, growing patronage, slow trains and a central terminal that was isolated from the city centre that it served. To revitalise the network and meet the needs of the growing city the railway needed to be extended through the city; the central terminal had to be relocated; and the entire network electrified. This work was the single most significant event in the history of the Sydney rail system, transforming the commuter experience and changing the face of the city.

Bray, James Samuel

A local character for nearly 50 years, James Samuel Bray was an amateur naturalist, prolific author and erratic entrepreneur in late-colonial Sydney. Despite representing the colony at exhibitions as far afield as Melbourne and Calcutta, Bray perennially skirted the edges of scientific and social respectability. Often ostracised in life, and soon forgotten after his death, he nevertheless embodied the 'antiquarian imagination' that took root in the Australian colonies from the 1870s until World War I.

Australia’s First Lottery

Australia's first lottery, held in Sydney in 1849, was surrounded by controversy and was probably illegal. It was immensely popular however and the government turned a blind eye as it seemed the only way of averting the consequences of a financial disaster.